Let’s see, where were we...

OK, I apologize for not writing sooner. But I’ve been preoccupied for the past 15 years. Back in 1995, when I left my Union-Tribune column to edit San Diego Magazine, I said I was going from the best job in the city to the best job in the city. I’ve done it again. There’s not enough room here for me to catch you up on the past decade and a half. But I can tell you where the city was when last we met here.

THE BIGGEST NEWS: Coach Bobby Ross and quarterback Stan Humphries were leading the Chargers to their first (and so far only) Super Bowl. And 17,000 San Diegans followed them to Miami ... Most of us flew coach. Sid and Jenny Craig flew there on their private jet. Joan Kroc’s 144-foot yacht was tied up at the Ft. Lauderdale Marina. Juan Vargas, who came out six votes ahead Friday in the latest tally of June 8 state senate primary votes, was a city councilman then — and a man of modest means. Vargas and his aide Ralph Inzunza traveled the 2,600 miles across country in 53 hours, in a rented car, eating at Taco Bells and taking turns sleeping in the reclining passenger seat ... Despite the Chargers’ homecoming in bitter defeat, the San Diego Historical Society put out the call for fans to donate memorabilia from the Super Bowl. “Anything at all,” they suggested, “from programs to ticket stubs.” “Or,” I suggested, “a game plan — if anyone’s seen one.”

WHEN HILLARY CLINTON came to San Diego in February of 1995, the U.S. Health Department contracted with San Diego Video & Film to record the First Lady’s visit. And the company’s Wayne Brubaker kept a straight face when the assigned bureaucrat asked if he’d accept a Visa card. “No problem,” said Brubaker,” as long as you haven’t exceeded your $3 trillion limit.” Today, of course, that would be $13 trillion.

LANGUAGE BARRIER: News on our blurred border with Mexico was considerably softer in ’95. The legendary director Craig Noel, who died this spring, told me a tale back then about the Old Globe’s winter offering of Shakespeare. The box office, he said, took a call from a heavily accented woman seeking information on the planned production. Did the theater, she asked, “still have tickets to ‘Machado About Nothing?’”

ITEMS INFINITUM: San Diego real estate was moving at a snail’s pace back in 1995, too. The “For Rent” sign in the window of the Wyer Real Estate office in La Jolla wasn’t for a beach cottage. It was for the Wyer Real Estate office. Going out of business after more than 50 years ... In Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson was on trial for murdering his wife. And San Diego’s Larry Barnes was on “Court TV” offering commentary. His expert’s credentials: As a deputy DA here, Barnes won convictions prosecuting Laura Troiani for murdering her Marine husband in Oceanside, and David Scott Harrison for killing his wife in San Marcos ... Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, who lost his U.S. Senate seat this month, was in San Diego in early 1995, meeting with Mayor Susan Golding and begging for funds from Republican high-rollers ... Golding was appearing on CNN to boast about our city snagging the ’96 GOP convention. Her backers figured the coup would enhance her chances of moving up to the governor’s office. It didn’t.